April 1, 2010

A spot of weather in the East

It has been a brutal winter for most of the USA except for the Pacific Northwest. Now that temps are above freezing, the moisture that is plaguing the Northeast is coming as rain and flooding. From the Rhode Island Providence Journal:
Sewage plants overwhelmed; residents, retailers left reeling
The worst arrived in the early hours of Wednesday, an indomitable force of water creeping ever higher through the darkness. Thousands of tired homeowners watched their basement steps incrementally vanish beneath it. Soaked National Guardsmen along Route 95 in Warwick saw it spill over the sandbags they had worked for hours to stack.

By dawn, the unparalleled flood had transformed the Rhode Island landscape into islands of isolation, the region�s web of roadways broken, whole sections of neighborhoods stranded and without power.

Gridlock greeted thousands of commuters weaving like mice through a maze of alternate routes around Route 95, the state�s most vital transportation artery, closed in Warwick by the flooding Pawtuxet River.

And with a half-dozen sewage treatment plants compromised or overwhelmed by the most destructive flood in the state�s recorded history, officials braced for an environmental disaster with huge public health and financial ramifications.

Governor Carcieri shut down state government and urged people to stay home. In the epicenter of grief �� the Pawtuxet River basin where hundreds of homes were already submerged �� the water continued to rise to levels never before seen.
Fortunately Governor Carcieri has already requested aid so FEMA is there cutting checks and arranging things. One of the key issues with New Orleans during Katrina is that Governor Blanco took three long days to make this request and the Federal Government had to sit back and do nothing until she did. State's Rights and all that. Aides urged her, President Bush spoke with her on the phone several times but it took three... long... days... to get the request from her to Washington. Posted by DaveH at April 1, 2010 8:53 PM
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